BANFF – With the pedestrian zone vote in the rearview mirror, traffic issues will continue to be a pressing issue in the Banff townsite.
Residents took to the polls to ditch the Banff Ave. pedestrian zone, with 1,328 casting ballots to remove the polarizing pedestrian-only area to 1,194 aiming to keep it.
A central concern raised by residents was the amount of vehicle traffic in the townsite that’s federally legislated to not grow beyond its four square kilometres.
Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno acknowledged the resident vote shows council “got it wrong” on the pedestrian zone, but the traffic issue will remain.
“We heard many reasons why folks didn’t want to keep the pedestrian zone, but the resounding message of concern is having too many vehicles on our finite road system,” she said. “I believe this is a shared community concern no matter how people voted on the pedestrian zone. The pedestrian zone caused vehicles to detour onto nearby streets and that was a tipping point for folks.
“We know more needs to be done to find solutions to traffic congestion with Parks Canada and we will continue to advocate for that support. We cannot add more roads within our townsite, so we’re going to have to look at ways we can reduce vehicles coming into Banff, while we still welcome people from across Canada and the world.”
DiManno highlighted due to large communities being a short driving distance from Banff – particularly Calgary – and continuing to grow, solutions need to be found for people getting to the tourism town.
“We are neighbours to some of the fastest growing cities in Canada, and folks in the Calgary region almost entirely visit in vehicles, so we have a lot of work ahead to reduce the traffic issues we have in Banff. I’m confident that together as a community, we will respect and embrace this outcome,” she said. “We’re also going to focus on working together to continue making progress on this issue, as well as the other issues that were raised during this community conversation.”
Banff has a unique legislative setup, with the town being incorporated under the federal government in the 1990s. Any land use planning decision has to be approved by the ministry responsible for Parks Canada, and the townsite has its growth and commercial development specifically capped.
A Parks Canada-struck expert advisory panel prepared a report Moving People Sustainably in the Banff Bow Valley.
The 2022 report recommended the creation of mobility hubs, improving public transit, promoting active transportation, closures for non-motorized travel and reducing the amount of vehicles entering Banff National Park.
The subsequent what we heard report had slightly more than half of roughly 200 respondents say they lived in the Bow Valley and emphasized the need to act as soon as possible.
More than 8.3 million vehicles go through Banff National Park each year, with an estimated half stopping somewhere in the park. From 2010-19, there was a 29 per cent increase in visitation, while in Lake Louise there has been a 71 per cent increase in traffic volume in the last decade.
In 2023, popular Moraine Lake was closed to vehicle traffic and the 2022 report suggested a focus on site-specific research was needed to find ways to manage overcrowding.
“Parks Canada must be willing to be open to conversations and active partnership with both Roam and the Town of Banff to seek new solutions and more effective transit options. These organizations have been very proactive, and Parks Canada needs to catch up,” the report stated.
Looking at options to mitigate congestion
The Town of Banff is looking at potential options for an intercept parking lot and mobility hub at the east entrance to help ease congestion, but Parks Canada has been clear any parking infrastructure outside the municipal boundary will not be allowed.
Coun. Grant Canning emphasized issues of traffic and congestion are equally Banff National Park issues not only the responsibility of the Town.
“Sadly, we have a complete lack of interest from Parks Canada to help us address that issue, even though it greatly affects the national park as a whole,” he said. “For far too long, this issue has been left to us with little to no help from Parks. It’s frustrating, to say the least. We need a national park-wide strategy to address congestion. I remain a big believer in mobility hubs or intercept lots on the edge of town and I’ll keep advocating for that.”
Coun. Kaylee Ram echoed Canning on Parks Canada needing to be involved, with the Town and other aspects of the community working to find solutions to traffic and congestion-relation issues
“I really expect that this discussion and these challenges that we face, we have to work in tangent with Parks Canada,” she said.
Ram noted a key part of the incorporation agreement is the Banff townsite to serve as a centre for visitors, but also maintain a sustainable community for locals.
“Ultimately, Parks Canada, Town of Banff – we’re all community, we’re all neighbours, we’re all friends – we all want what’s best. The only way that these solutions are going to happen is if we work collaboratively, and that’s educating people in town that this isn’t just a Town of Banff issue. This is also Parks Canada,” she said. “We don’t have the upper hand on this, the federal government do instead. I really would hope we’re both leaning on each other moving forward, and also taking a look at what other national parks do and learn by example.”
Parks Canada has committed to releasing a sustainable strategy for moving people by 2026.
'Difficult conversations' needed to address community issues
Long-time Coun. Ted Christensen said a key concern of residents remains issues such as increased traffic on residential streets, noise, continued growth in tourism and worry about evacuation timelines if an event required residents to leave the community quickly.
“It’s the traffic, not just the congestion, but the number of vehicles and accompanying that is the noise. … There’s an overarched discussion on over-tourism and you can’t discount the concerns of those who have made expert and given expert opinions about the evacuation of the town,” he said.
Though he said people who voted no on the pedestrian enjoyed aspects of it, there were ultimately concerns that needed to be addressed first.
“Those same people took a broader perspective and because they live here, they saw the concerns that we had with Parks Canada, and that this was still an unknown, and they saw the increased congestion on the adjacent streets, and they hadn’t dismissed the thoughts that closing Banff Avenue would impede the evacuation of the south side.”
Leslie Taylor, a representative of Banffites for a Comfortable Living Community – the group opposed to the pedestrian zone – highlighted conversations need to be had to find solutions to the issue.
“The real problem is too many vehicles in a tiny little town. I think from watching the discussions that’s a problem both sides understand,” said Taylor, Banff’s first mayor. “I hope what we see going forward is people talking about that problem and how we’re going to solve that problem. Moving it from Banff Avenue into the residential streets isn’t a solution.”
She noted the community is running up against limits and “difficult conversations” will need to be had.
“I hope we’ll see more discussions,” she said.
Allan Buckingham, a representative for Friends of a Better Banff Ave. – the group supporting the pedestrian zone – said he felt it became a “lightning rod” for community concerns of over-tourism and traffic congestion.
He said the group would continue to advocate for promoting active lifestyles and sustainability goals.
“Those are things we’ve got to deal with and the community voiced what they were feeling about the pedestrian zone and all kinds of other things potentially, but that’s the way it goes,” he said.
'Multitude of strategies to mitigate traffic issues'
Banff council has moved forward with several initiatives to encourage more active modes of transit in the townsite, but also for people to get to and from Banff.
In its involvement with Roam transit, the Town has increased bus frequency for local routes and redesigned a sizeable aspect of Mountain Avenue for a bus express lane.
Parks Canada has also contributed to regional routes to areas such as Lake Louise, Johnston Canyon and Lake Minnewanka.
The Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission runs On-It service from Calgary to Banff and Lake Louise, which had 42,745 people use it in summer 2023.
Coun. Barb Pelham said a key aspect will continue to be deterring people from driving to the townsite. She noted people still prefer to use personal vehicles to commute, but “mass transit from the city is the goal”, though it will take time.
“We must continue with a multitude of strategies to mitigate traffic issues in town,” she said. “Conversations continue with Parks Canada about another intercept parking lot at the east entrance to town, which could double as a fire break to help protect our town. Reducing intense traffic to the [Banff] Hot Springs and gondola on Sulphur Mountain is also a priority.
“A shuttle system and/or paid parking at Sulphur Mountain, similar to what’s used at Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, could help diminish congestion significantly. As these attractions are not within the Town’s boundaries, we cannot mandate this, however, we hope that Parks Canada and Pursuit will collaborate to reduce traffic congestion caused by their operations.”
Town council approved the area redevelopment plan for the railway lands earlier this year, with a key focus being maintaining free intercept parking and potentially bringing back passenger rail service between Calgary and Banff.
The plan still needs Parks Canada approval, which is under consideration, but would add 580 parking spots on the north side of the tracks to the existing 500 parking stalls on the south side of the tracks. The nearby Fenlands Recreation Centre has 170 stalls.
The provincial government launched a master plan this year, which includes examining passenger rail between Calgary and Banff, but there are no pending decisions.
Due to its limited size, the townsite has a vehicle threshold of roughly 24,000 a day. During the summer months, vehicle traffic remains high as people flock to the mountain town.
During the Canada Day long weekend from June 28 to July 1, for example, the town had 114,394 vehicles enter Banff. Though it was a decrease from 117,363 in 2019 and 120,725 in 2023, the maximum vehicle travel time south from Banff Ave. entrance to downtown was 22:26. For north traffic from the Rimrock Resort Hotel to downtown, it was 29:50.
The same long weekend had 27,772 riders on Roam transit local routes, not including buses run by the Rimrock Resort Hotel and Pursuit to the Sulphur Mountain gondola.
There were 35 green overrides, which allows for longer greenlights at Spray and Banff avenues and Banff Avenue and Buffalo Street to relieve congestion on Mountain and Spray avenues.
Traffic over the Banff Ave. Bridge, which is the lone vehicle mode to get over the Bow River, often becomes the congestion pinpoint with Lynx, Bear, Buffalo, Beaver, Muskrat, Otter and Caribou streets frequently having long traffic backups.
Greater attention placed on concerns
Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams said the plebiscite vote has brought significant attention that will hopefully lead to all sides finding long-term answers to the concerns brought forward by residents.
“The nature of the campaign is super polarized, and the reality is the existing policy was far from perfect. I think a lot of folks were really interested in finding a better solution, so losing an imperfect solution in the hope that something better can be crafted, I think is the sort of thing that you like to see,” she said.
“The problem of over-tourism is something that I think more people are aware of and this plebiscite has forced a higher profile or greater recognition of the urgency of the problem and the need for collaboration in order to try to come up with some kind of effective response that actually might lay the foundation for a more nuanced response.”
A request for an interview with Banff National Park superintendent Sal Rasheed and a request for comment from the field unit went unanswered.
